What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, goes the saying. IBM will hope that`s not true for the more than 7 000 customers and partners it invited to the Strip to hear the latest on the company`s information on demand (IOD) strategy.

In 2006, IBM promised to spend more than $1 billion constructing an information management strategy that it said would help its customers put information at the centre of their organisations. Two years and $7 billion later, the company is pushing information on demand more than ever, both with enhancements to its existing product lines and some success stories from customers who came along for the ride when it was first proposed. If $7 billion seems like a bit more than anticipated, especially compared to $1 billion, it`s because $5 billion of that capital was spent on acquiring business intelligence company Cognos earlier this year.